Isn't That Usually Done In The Kitchen?
by Tarma Hartley
Summary: Written for Exiled To The Couch's "Yuiseppe Art Omake Challenge #1" on Animesuki. Tahlea Grande is trying to recreate the candy that Dr. Chartreuse had made for her when she was sick but the results will not be what she's expecting... K, Tahlea, GrimGrimoire, Humor


_A/N: Tahlea and Hibiscus don't belong to me; they are the creations of DezoPenguin. [I'm sure he won't mind if I borrow them for awhile. :D ] The plot, however, is mine. :)  
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_Tahlea is looking to recreate some candy that Dr. Chartreuse made for her some time ago although the result will _not_ be what she expects..._

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It's another _GrimGrimoire_ story! :)

This humorous piece comes as a result of the "Yuiseppe Art Omake Challenge #1" thread on Animesuki's_ GrimGrimoire's _social group_, Exiled to the Couch_. It's the second GrimGrimoire story I've written. :) *This is the edited and somewhat expanded version* I simply couldn't resist adding the Chimera cowering underneath the table in the lab after the explosion-although I'm pretty sure that a Chimera _wouldn't_ cower before _anything_, much less an explosive accident in a lab-since it was just _too_ silly for me _not _to! :D

I'm using the word _lozenge_ to refer to "a small, flavored tablet made from sugar or syrup" and leaving out the "often medicated" part of it. That it worked out well for Tahlea as a cough drop is just an added bonus! :D

I hope that you enjoy the story! :)

**Thanks** to my readers and all those who have favourited, reviewed, story alerted, favourite author or author alerted me. I appreciate it more than I can say! :)

**Thanks** to yuiseppe for the artistic inspiration for this story!

**Thanks **to deathcurse, antlan87 & DezoPenguin for commenting on _Exiled to the Couch_! I really appreciate it! :)

**Extra EXTRA Special thanks** to my beloved husband, DezoPenguin, for all his help, support, advice, the title for this story, nagging (when necessary) and encouragement! I appreciate it more than I can say! Love you!

Any and all comments will be appreciated and are enthusiastically welcomed! :)

Rated K, Tahlea, GrimGimoire, Humour

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Tahlea Grande bit her lip in concentration, working the flesh gently between her teeth as she carefully poured the amethyst-colored liquid gently into the long-necked bottle that lay on top of the platform over the Bunsen burner. As it flowed slowly downward and into the mix, it bubbled and burbled, thin tendrils of purple rising and falling amid the bursting bubbles that lined the churning surface, climbing up the sides of the bottle.

She smiled in satisfaction, releasing the pent up breath that she had been holding with a loud _whoosh_, stepping back from the table. She wasn't certain that she would have been able to do it but, here in front of her, was the proof that she_ had _succeeded in recreating the purple lozenges that Dr. Chartreuse had made for her when she was sick with a cold a few months ago. Ever since then, she had been craving the thick, honey-sweetened discs and wished that he had the time to make her some more; she had an incredibly prolific sweet tooth and, when the mood for sweets overtook her, she was known to prowl in the kitchen, rifling through the ice-box for cake or some other kind of sweet pastry.

She grinned sheepishly as she thought of it, staring dreamily at the roiling mixture as it twisted and writhed. Her occasional nocturnal visits to the kitchen in the early hours of the morning sometimes got on the wrong side of the head cook, a large woman dressed in a white tunic and black slacks, with piercing emerald-green eyes and steel-grey hair bound up in a serviceable bun at the nape of her neck.

She'd been there for over twenty years, ruling the kitchen with an iron fist, and she made no secret of the fact that she considered Tahlea's prowling to be an _unwelcome_ intrusion on what _she_ considered her _exclusive_ territory. As far as she was concerned, once the kitchen closed for the night it was _closed_ for the night; there were _no_ exceptions to that rule, regardless of the circumstances and especially _not _for a late-night sweet run.

Dr. Chartreuse, knowing that she sometimes had a craving for sweets that bordered on the incredible, sympathized with her in the matter and later, with Tahlea tagging along, had had a chat with the head cook. The woman, though grudgingly, had agreed to allow her to prowl on those evenings when she had her sweet cravings but she _wasn't_ at all happy about it; although she stood on Chartreuse's right, standing slightly behind him when he met and talked with the cook, the woman's piercing eyes flickered over to _her_.

Tahlea _hadn't_ missed the pointed look that the woman had given her and she sighed, knowing that she had crossed a line somewhere as far as the cook was concerned although she suspected it was a line that the cook _herself _had drawn and _not_ an actual _rule_.

At any rate, the woman had never passed up an opportunity since to give her a dagger-like look whenever she saw her in the kitchen; she made no other comment and flounced off in the opposite direction after making sure that Tahlea _wasn't_ up to any mischief in _her _kitchen.

The head cook's antagonism had hurt at first since Tahlea _did _like her and the amazing meals and desserts that she made with quality and skill but she quickly learned to pay no mind to her, concentrating solely on whatever it was that she was craving at any given moment. She was surprised, and mildly confused, when she and the head cook seemed to get along _much_ better that way but she shrugged, simply chalking it up to the oddness and perversity of the mortal human make-up and left it at that.

She dragged her wandering thoughts back to what she was doing, watching the mixture bubble with intense concentration, waiting for the right moment to add the orange-yellow concoction that lay on the table next to her elbow. The scent of lavender honey filled the room, making Tahlea's mouth water at the memory of just how _good _those lozenges had tasted: they had, literally, melted in her mouth, the sweetness exploding with an intense, heavenly flavor. She also remembered that the candy was not only delicious but had soothed her congested chest and sore throat _quite _nicely and she was very grateful to her Creator for being so kind as to make them for her.

Once she had recovered from her cold a few of weeks later, she thought about asking the good doctor to make her some more but he had been very busy lately with other matters that were much more important than making her some candy.

She had thought about asking one of Chartreuse's lab assistants else to help her out but, seeing that he had the only copy of the recipe on his desk in office in the lab, she _couldn't_ very well ask someone else to go rifling through his papers. Not only would it border on rude and Chartreuse himself would be understandably angry but one of the doc's odder creatures that sometimes had the run of the lab _might _have an encounter with an unfortunate assistant which would probably end badly for the said assistant.

Unable to think of a viable option, she'd taken herself off to the garden in order to concentrate on the problem at hand; she liked coming here when she was in need of some time alone or when she had a problem to think over that needed solving. She sat down on the stone bench beside the rose bushes and thought about it for awhile, her hand boxed underneath her chin, going over the pros and cons in her mind for a time before deciding to make it herself.

After all, she reasoned as she shrugged into a white lab coat before she raced to the doctor's office to pick up the recipe and then went over to the kitchen to gather the necessary ingredients, it _shouldn't_ be _too _difficult to recreate it! She'd had some experience with mixing chemicals although, in her excitement, she conveniently ignored the fact that when she tried her hand at experiments with chemicals they usually tended to explode.

She pushed _that _particular thought into the far recesses of her mind as she reached the lab, opening the door quickly and racing inside, the door shutting behind her with a loud click. She whistled as she ran, thoughts of those sweet purple candies dancing through her head.

And, now, she stood on the precipice as she watched the mixture bubble and boil within the bottle after she'd added a few drops of the orange-yellow concoction to the roiling purple mix cooking over the Bunsen burner. She squealed with excitement; she had done it!

True, there _had_ been a moment when she feared the mixture would bubble over once she'd added the orange-yellow but, as soon as she picked up the bottle by the neck and gently swirled it in small circles for a moment or two, it settled down, much to her relief. A few minutes of heart-pounding suspense later, she was thrilled to see the bubbling mixture take on that lovely shade that she was so familiar with. She couldn't _wait _to taste the end result!

She was so lost in her self-congratulatory thoughts that she_ didn't_ notice the slight, smoky tinge in the air and, once she did, she was _very_ surprised to see the formerly purple-colored mix was now an expanding, burbling and contracting _black_.  
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What on earth_- was all she had time to think before it bubbled up the narrow neck and exploded, blackened gooey shards flying in all directions...

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Hibi coughed as she flew into the lab, her wings fluttering hard. The fairy, who was Tahlea's best friend and nagging caretaker every now and then, had heard the explosion down the hall and knew _immediately_ what that meant: _something _that Tahlea was working on in the lab had exploded again. She hoped fervently that she was all right and hadn't been hurt.

From the destruction that met her widened eyes as she as she turned the corner, it had been a _very_ large explosion, black, gooey bits of... _something_… splattered all over the walls and ceiling, small shards of glittering glass stuck in intermittent patterns in said wall. And was that a Chimera cowering beneath the table nearest the door?

She couldn't see much in the thick, greyish-black smoke, her eyes watering as she flew through it-she also noted that someone had managed to put the fire out before it spread which was certainly a good thing so that was one less thing to worry about-but it was beginning to sear her lungs so Hibi decided to take matters into her own hands.

_First things first_, she thought. _We need to clear the room._ Rubbing her eyes to clear them, she blinked a few times and flew over to the nearest window; with some tugging and pushing, she managed to get it open, smoke pouring out the window in thick, billowing clouds.

Hibi waited a few minutes until she was satisfied that the smoke had mostly cleared, looking carefully around the ruined lab, groaning at what she saw. It was worse than she had suspected at first and she really hoped that Tahlea was okay which as she saw to her relief when she flew over to the wall nearest the door and could see her crouching, her arms covering her head in a protective gesture although her lab coat was covered in black goo, she was.

Hibi _wasn't_ sure how Tahlea managed to duck down before the explosion but she was grateful that she _had_; she _didn't_ want to think of what might have happened to her if she _hadn't. _Now that she was certain that she was all right and no worse the wear for her experience, her pent up anger at her carelessness bubbled to the surface, finding free expression.

"Tahlea," she said, a slight edge to her voice that made her wince once she'd uncovered her head and got shakily to her feet, meeting the fairy's glare head on, "_what_ on earth were you doing?"

Tahlea grimaced as her eyes glanced downward, flushing guiltily.

"I was trying to make some of those purple lozenges that Dr. Chartreuse made for me when I was sick," she explained, pulling out globs of black sticky stuff from her hair, making a sour face as she did so. "Everything was going well until I turned away for a moment and-"

Hibi crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes sparking angrily as she hovered over the ruined table.

"And, _what_?" she prompted, her gaze turning blacker by the moment.

"And-" she gave Hibi an uncertain look; it was obvious that she was _very _upset with her but she wasn't exactly sure _why_-"it turned black for some reason and then it bubbled over and exploded." She closed her eyes for a minute, taking a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "I'm okay, Hibi, really."

"That _wasn't _what I was worried about," the fairy returned tersely, one hand going to the hat perched on her head. "I could see that the moment I looked at you: although you're covered in disgusting black goop, I can see that you weren't hit by any shards of glass."

Tahlea stood up, leaning back for a moment and stretching before looking at the destruction that was present on the table: broken beakers and test tubes littered the top amid sticky puddles of black goop and the neck of the bottle that she had been cooking the mix in was broken, lying in two pieces beside it.

"Then," she asked as she coughed slightly, black wisps of smoke puffing out from her pursed lips, "why are you so angry with me?"

"_Other_ than the _obvious_, has it occurred to you that, thanks to _your _carelessness, _you've_ ruined a perfectly _good _record while trying to make some stupid _candy_?!"

Tahlea's eyes narrowed in confusion.

"_Record_?" she repeated stupidly, her mind whirling. She had _no_ idea what Hibi was talking about and it showed on her soot and goop-stained face. "_What _record?"

Her wings buzzing with the full force of her rage behind it, Hibi jabbed a finger in the air and Tahlea's eyes followed to where it pointed. On the far wall, splattered with goop and soot, she noticed a creamy white piece of parchment that had been tacked up to the wall, some words written on it in flowing script: **Number Of Days Gone Without An Accident: 999.**

"Oh..." Realization dawned on her as she turned slightly to see Hibi hovering over the table. Now she understood what she meant by "_ruining a perfect record_": she was referring to the lab's safety record up to this point. In one fell explosion, she'd managed to wipe out a little over two and a half year long record without _any_ kind of accident at all and now they had to begin all over again. She couldn't blame Hibi for being angry; she would be, too, were she in the same position.

_Well, I really managed to mess things up..._ she thought ruefully, smoothing her mussed hair that stuck out in three different directions. _No_ wonder she'_s upset!_

As if Tahlea had called her, the vengeful-minded fairy asked angrily, her wings buzzing like a bumblebee's, "Do you have _anything _to say for yourself?!"

"Heh..." Tahlea muttered to herself, a foolish smile spreading over her face and, in the presence of a _very _enraged fairy who was rightfully angry with her, wisely decided not to say anything more and clamped her lips tightly shut.

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The moral of the story: Making candy is dangerous in the hands of an amateur.

**~Fin~**


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